


stepping on toes

by mothsalt



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Confessions, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Identity Reveal, Love Confessions, Rated teen for swearing, Secret Identity, i imagine them older than in canon like 17ish, natch, so like they been on this superhero shit for awhile now, that were requited the whole time unbeknownst to them, they sad and then they really happy, unrequited feelings, well first Official kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-20 22:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20683199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mothsalt/pseuds/mothsalt
Summary: “Ladybug, I still love you. I’m sorry, shit, that’s not what you want to hear.” He pulled his hand away, swung his legs back onto the roof and paced away. Practically on its own, her hand slid up to the place his had just been on her back. She winced, and got up after him.“Chat, please don’t leave.” He didn’t turn around. Ladybug wrapped her arms around herself tightly. “I don’t want to be alone, you were right, I need you.”“God!” He kicked something across the roof, and it made a loud skittering. It might have been a rock, or something. Ladybug squeezed her eyes shut. “You can’t say that. I can’t hear that. I just can’t anymore.”





	stepping on toes

**Author's Note:**

> we have a russian translation now! https://ficbook.net/readfic/8766590

“M’lady?” 

Ladybug choked, jumping about a foot in the air at the voice of her partner. She quickly swipe the stray tears from cheeks before swinging around to face him, the picture of innocence. 

“Ohhhh Chat Noir! Great to see you! Whoops, I gotta dash-” 

“Hey.” He grabbed onto her arm and was somehow able to hold her in place, despite her heroic efforts to escape. “What are you doing out tonight? Don’t I have patrol on Friday’s?”

“Umm, yeah! I just felt like going out, have nothing better to do.” She smiled widely, overcompensating for the fact that if the sun hadn’t just set ten minutes ago he’d be able to see how puffy and red her eyes were. 

“Oh, cool. We can patrol together, then.” He grinned, and Ladybug deflated. She just wanted to be alone. 

“I actually kind of wanted to be by myself….” She said, swallowing the end of the sentence as she retracted her arm out of his grip. Then smiled widely again. “You know how girls are, we love our privacy!” 

“What?” 

“Uh, haha! Yeah, well, later Chat!” She made to leap away again, but Chat Noir caught a hold of her again. 

“Are you okay, Ladybug? You’re acting kinda…” He scrunched up his nose, scanning her face. It was almost too dark to make out his expression, but his eyes always seemed to glow faintly. Wait, what if that was like, cat night vision or something? Oh GOD, that would mean he could totally see she’d been crying! Had he always had it? How come he’d never mentioned it before? Ladybug thought she knew about all of his powers, but maybe not. 

“-dybug? Hello?”

“Huh?” She jolted out of her thoughts. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“I said you’re being really weird. Is everything okay?” Shit. Years of being partners maybe meant he kind of knew her really well by this point, didn’t it?

“I….” She can’t lie to him. She can’t really lie to anyone at all. She’s pretty awful at lying, actually. Surely  _ he _ knew that now, after her absolutely pathetic attempt to tell  _ him _ that It Was Okay!!!! Really!!!!! She’s fine!!!!! It’s no big deal, home slice!!! All good in Marinette town!!!!! She shuddered at the memory; not only would Adrien be totally weirded out by her crush, he’d probably never want to talk to her at all now after how’d she’d reacted. So. Much. Stuttering. And laughing? God, what was wrong with her?!

“You there?” 

“Huh?” Chat Noir looked almost amused, though she could tell from how tense his shoulders were that he hadn’t lost any of his concern. “Sorry, lost my train of thought. What had you asked?”

“Are you okay, Marinette?”

“WHAT?” She shrieked, flinging herself backwards across the roof, back knocking into the large air ventilation box. 

Chat Noir looked a little freaked out now. “I said, ‘Are you okay, Ladybug?’. Seriously, what’s going on? I’ve never seen you act like this before.” 

“I’m fine!” She laughed, wringing her hands. 

“You’re not.” Chat Noir deadpanned, coming closer again. “Why are you patrolling tonight if you’re such a mess?”

“Jee, thanks.” 

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah.” She sighed, dropping her gaze from his face and walking towards the edge of the roof, where a stone balcony jutted up about four feet high and two feet wide. Ladybug boosted herself up, and dangled her legs over the side, dropping her hands into her lap. “You can see so much from up here.”

“Yeah?” He laughed, “Ladybug, we’ve literally been above the clouds before, on top of the Eiffel Tower. Is this view really the one making you emotional?”

“I’m emotional enough as is. The pretty lights aren’t helping.” 

She felt, more than heard, him sit down next to her. There was a solid distance between them. Room enough for a third person to fit comfortably and be able to turn all about without anyone getting an elbow to the face. This distance was one kept between them the vast majority of the time, battles and best friend comfort aside. It had been at Ladybug’s request. 

“What’s going on, Bugaboo?”

She laughed, weakly throwing out her arm in a pointless attempt to knock him on the shoulder. She missed, obviously. 

“It’s uh, it’s been a hard day.” 

“You wanna talk about it?”

She sighed, dropping her eyes from the city to her lap, where she folded her hands up neatly. “I’m not sure I can. Y’know. Without revealing something.” 

“We promised we wouldn’t go digging. Remember? After I accidentally said the name of one of my teachers?”

“I remember.” She couldn’t even remember the name of the teacher now, that had been at least a year ago, maybe more. 

“So….?” 

She took a breath. “Have… have you ever been in love with someone who doesn’t love you back?” They both winced the moment the words left her mouth, Ladybug realizing too late what she’d said. She jerked her head to the right, hands outstretched as if she might be able to grab the words before they reached him. It was too late, of course. 

“I’m sor-”

“It’s okay.” He said softly. He was looking out at the city now, too. “And yeah. I know the feeling.” 

Guilt filled Ladybug’s stomach like a blackhole; so much that it was just empty. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“We’re not here talking about me. What happened with your….with your boy?”

Ladybug swallowed, looking away from his face. 

“I confessed to him today.”

“Wait, really?” She saw him straighten up from her peripherals, looking genuinely excited for her. “That’s awesome! He feels the same, right?”

Ladybug didn’t answer. Her silence spoke for itself. 

“Oh.” He deflated. “Shit, Bug. I’m sorry. That’s probably a major bummer.” 

“Yeah, I mean. What’re you gonna do?” She laughed, albeit tearfully, and wiped under her eyes again. 

“Well, if it’s any consolation, he doesn’t know what he’s missing out on.”

“To be fair, I’m kind of different without the mask on.” 

“I doubt it.”

“You don’t know me.”

“Sure I do, you’re my best frie-”

“No.” She interrupted, eyes boring into his with an almost violent ferocity. “You. Don’t. You have no idea what I’m really like, and  _ I _ doubt you would feel the way you do if you did.” 

“That’s not true and you know it.” He replied, matching her in passion without missing a beat. “Ladybug, you’re not going to let stupid stuff like some dumb guy get into your head like that. This is his loss, not yours.” 

She bit back a retort, dropping her eyes back down to her hands. 

“And like, he rejected me in such a  _ him _ way, which hurts even more, for some reason. I almost wish he’d been mean about it, easier to get over him.”

“Did he say why? Or just doesn’t feel the same?”

“Well that, but he...he said he liked someone else. No, loved, he said love. God, I’m so stupid.” She dropped her face fully into her hands, tears squeezing out of her eyes again. 

She felt Chat Noir tentatively put his hand on her back, and when she didn’t tell him to stop, take it as a sign that this was okay. He scooted a little closer, and gently started rubbing her back in a weirdly soothing way. 

“Ladybug, I-” He sucked in a breath. “I’m going to ask you something and I want you to not be mad at me for it.” Oh god. 

“Chat-”

“If you hadn’t liked him already, do you think you would have liked me back?” 

“You don’t want me to answer that.”

“I really do.”

“I can’t, I don’t know.” 

“Okay.” 

“Chat-”

“Ladybug, I still love you. I’m sorry, shit, that’s not what you want to hear.” He pulled his hand away, swung his legs back onto the roof and paced away. Practically on its own, her hand slid up to the place his had just been on her back. She winced, and got up after him. 

“Chat, please don’t leave.” He didn’t turn around. Ladybug wrapped her arms around herself tightly. “I don’t want to be alone, you were right, I need you.”

“God!” He kicked something across the roof, and it made a loud skittering. It might have been a rock, or something. Ladybug squeezed her eyes shut. “You can’t say that. I can’t hear that. I just can’t anymore.” 

“Chat-”

“I just don’t understand.” He whirled around to face her. “What does this guy have that I don’t? He doesn’t feel the same, and I love you with everything I am! I have for years, Ladybug! I want to be with you, and be that guy you love! He doesn’t deserve you! Not when he makes you feel this bad….” His words got softer towards the end of his spiel, and Ladybug hiccupped, tears still coming down. 

“Chat Noir….I, we don’t even know each other.”

“No, we don’t know each others real names, we don’t know who each others friends and family are, and we don’t know where each other lives, but don’t fucking say we don’t know each other, Ladybug.” 

“I can’t keep having this conversation with you. It’s not safe for us to know. It’ll change things between us.”

“Don’t you  _ want _ things to change?” He begged, sounding utterly broken. 

“I want what’s best for us and for Paris.” Ladybug said firmly, crossing her arms tighter and hunching over. “We’re both emotionally compromised tonight. We should finish this conversation later.”

“No, we need to finish it now. I’m not putting it off anymore. Why him and not me?”

“Because he knows how to let something drop and take no for an answer!” She shouted, hands dropping to her sides, balled up and tight. “He wouldn’t push me to talk about something I don’t want to talk about.” 

“But Ladybug-”

“Can you just listen to me?! I took no for an answer from  _ him _ today, from  _ Luca _ a year ago, from  _ you _ two years ago, I-” She froze, cutting herself off, the dawning realization of what she’d just said hitting her full force. 

He seemed to be of a similar feeling. 

“What are you talking about? What about me?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing, I’m leaving-”

“You can’t just drop that bomb and leave! What are-”

“I’m LEAVING Chat, I’m-”

“Just tell me-”

“Chat-”

“What are you-”

“I can’t tell you!”

“Why?”

“Because!”

“Because why?!” 

“BECAUSE IT WOULD GIVE AWAY MY IDENTITY!” She screamed, pushing him in the chest as hard as she could to keep him from grabbing onto her arm again. 

“What are you talking about? Did you confess to me as a civilian or something?”

“No,” She lied. “I’m leaving.” 

“Ladybug, just have a conversation with me!” 

“I can’t tell you, it would give me up! You’re too smart to not figure it out. I can’t tell you anything. I can’t tell you who I am, who the guy I like is, or anything about me. We know too much about each other. We’re too attached. Hawk Moth already uses that to his advantage.”

Just saying his name made both heros very aware of how emotional they both were, and how easily they could be akumatized. Ladybug glanced around almost feverishly. 

“We’re not safe. We need to calm down.” 

“I’m perfectly calm.”

“No you’re not, just-” She took a deep breath, cracking her knuckles and rubbing her thumb and forefingers together on each hand. Calm. Calming thoughts. “Okay. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. Are you?”

“Yeah. This fucking sucks.” Ladybug said, dropping down and letting out a bitter laugh. She turned so that she was lying on her back, staring up into the sky. Chat got down next to her. This was just how they were now. Everything was unspoken between them, and it always got messy when they tried to put things into words. 

“I love you, Ladybug.”

“I know.” She sighed. He sighed too. This sucked. 

“Will you tell me about him? I’m not gonna get upset, I promise. I just like hearing you talk about things that make you happy.”

“I don’t know if talking about him’ll make me happy after today.” Ladybug murmured, but complied. “He’s so good. He’s just the kindest person I’ve ever met. He cares so much about everyone else that he hardly takes time for himself, and he just seems so sad. I just don’t want him to be so sad all the time, you know? I want to be able to make him happy. And it doesn’t help that he’s practically everywhere. It’s like every time I turn a corner I see him somewhere.”

“Paris isn’t  _ that _ small of a city.”

“I know. I mean less physical, more metaphorical, I guess.”

“Ah. Still not gonna tell me his name?”

“Nope. You’d be able to find me out so fast. Just look for the random black haired girl who hangs around him all the time and looks at him with a stupid lovey expression like he hung the goddamn moon and stars. I act like such an idiot around him.”

“I’m sure you’re not.”

“I am though. It’s just shitty.”

He sat up, and so did she, a beat later. They walked in a sort of rhythm to the edge of the roof again. He leaned his back against the ledge, propping his elbows up onto it and staring back out over the roof. Ladybug leaned against it and propped up her chin with her hands, looking out at the city. Her eyes narrowed at one of the buildings with a billboard on it. It looked so familar…….

“Shit!” She gasped, jolting back a few feet away from the ledge.

“What?” He started turning his head, and  _ maybe _ Ladybug panicked a little, because she did the only thing she could think of to stop him, which was grabbing the sides of his face and yanking his head back forward so that they were staring into each others eyes a little uncomfortably close. 

“Ladybug,” He breathed, and her stomach dropped. She let go of his face. He turned to look over his shoulder at the billboard of Adrien Agreste. He was smart enough to put it together. And even if it wasn’t, it would totally show on her face, oh god-

“I need to go-”

“Hey,” He grabbed onto her damn wrist again, and it was like an anchor, centering her despite everything spinning around her. 

“Hey. I need to go-”

“It’s him. Isn’t it?”

“What?” SHIT, she was breathing way too fast. 

“Adrien Agreste, that guy on the billboard? He’s about our age, right?” He was thinking about it, really thinking. He was figuring it out. He was gonna know her identity. “He’s a model so I guess it makes sense why a bunch of girls would like him. Just seems kinda shallow. All he is is a pretty face.” 

Ladybug’s expression turned dark. “I’m not shallow, I’ll have you know I personally know Adrien and he considers me a ‘very good friend’.” She did air quotes to emphasize that he had said those words to her face. Several times. Ugh. “I’m not some creepy stalker fan.” 

Chat Noir’s face did something weird. She couldn’t read it, and that was worrying. He probably didn’t know how to handle her mystery crush finally having a face and a name. She felt guilty about that, she hated hurting Chat. 

“You know him?”

“That’s what I said.” She muttered, not meeting his eyes. His grip on her arm had gone slack enough for her to pull it away and fold her arms over her chest. 

“Like, go to school with him kind of know him?”

“Uhh, if I say yes are you going to try and guess my identity?”

“I don’t have to guess.” He said, and his voice was low and serious and that in itself was kind of freaky because Chat was almost never serious about anything. Only ever about his feelings for her and taking down Hawk Moth, and  _ maybe _ the few times he opened up a bit about his home life. 

“Wh-what?” A nervous tremor escaping into her voice. 

“I don’t have to guess. I know who you are.”

Her blood turned to ice. The ground opened up beneath her. She may have blacked out for a second, or maybe she was just so frozen in horror that her brain forgot she was alive.

“No you don’t.”

“I do.” And he was smiling now, almost gleefully. 

“No, you really don’t.”

“Actually, I really do.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.” He was grinning, and looking at her with such love and ernesty that it made her feel dizzy. 

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do not!”

“Marinette!”

“What?” 

His voice went quiet. “I do.”

“Wha- oh.” Ladybug stumbled backwards. “I mean, what? Who’s Marinette? I don’t know that name.” 

“I thought you knew each other,  _ Ladybug _ .” 

“Oh yeah, we do, I should go say hi, BYE!” 

“Hey.” 

He didn’t grab her that time, but she still stopped. 

“Please don’t run, Marinette.”

“Okay.”

“So it’s really you?”

She didn’t answer. “How are you so sure?”

“Because I know you. And I love you. And I didn’t know I loved both of you until, I guess right now, but I think deep down I still did. I don’t know how I got so lucky that you’re the same person.” 

“What?” Now Ladybug wasn’t so much upset and shocked as she was confused. 

“Oh right. Um. Yeah, so a friend told me something today and I really care about her so I tried to let her down as gently as I could, to preserve her feelings, you know? But I think I made a mistake. Turns out I’ve been in love with her since the moment I laid eyes on her and I didn’t even know it half the time.”

And she knew. But she didn’t. She didn’t have confirmation. She would  _ not _ get her hopes up. This wasn’t happening. 

“Chat….?”

“Claws in!” He cried, and there was a beaming brilliance of bright green, so strong it was practically white. It burned Ladybug’s eyes, but then in a second, it died away. 

And in its place stood Adrien Agreste. 

Next to him hovered a small black cat kwami, Plagg. She’d met him before. 

“Well it’s about time!” Plagg yowled, his little teeth showing as his mouth went big. Ladybug couldn’t stop staring at Adrien. He was right there. He was Chat Noir. She had kissed him before. She had kissed Adrien Agreste several times before. He loves her. Adrien Agreste has been in love with her ever since he first laid eyes on her. On  _ her _ . 

He reached a hand out to her face, shooting her a nervous sort of  _ Is this okay? _ look, and Ladybug nodded fervently. His hand very carefully tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, and with that same gentle care and tenderness, cupped her face. She leaned into the touch without even meaning to, and  _ god she had wanted this forever _ . 

“You don’t have to take off your-”

“Spots off!” She blurted out, face growing red in embarrassment as the same resplendent light, this time pink, burst off of her. It knocked him back, his hand drawing back in shock. 

And then it was just her. Marinette. In front of Adrien. On a roof. With both of their kwamis hovering in midair just a little ways off, whispering to each other. 

Adrien looked at her, practically in  _ awe _ , and THAT was the final straw my friends, Marinette had had enough. She could take no more. 

She snatched his face up in her hands and wrenched him down towards her, planting a kiss square on his mouth. Unfortunately, she misjudged the force with which she grabbed him, and their foreheads collided in the same moment their lips did. 

“Ow!” Ouch!” They both yelped in unison, pulling away for just a second. Just long enough to lock eyes and grin and then go right back in for more because that TINY kiss was nothing, they’d been waiting fucking  _ years _ for this moment. 

And it was nice. It was really,  _ really nice _ . Adrien wrapped his arms around her back, hooking his thumbs together like he was locking himself in place, and Marinette tucked hers around his neck, using the leverage to pull him closer to her. 

After several minutes, Adrien’s head veered to her left, kissing the side of her head gently and then resting on her shoulder. He was hunched over a good bit and Marinette wasn’t sure how comfortable it was for him, but he seemed pretty content. 

“I can’t believe you’ve been right in front of me this whole time and I didn’t even realize it.” He whispered, squeezing her even tighter, if that was possible. Marinette felt tears well up in her eyes again. 

“I can’t believe I rejected you so many times.” And she sounded broken. She felt broken. What if she was part of the reason he looked so sad all the time?

“I don’t care about any of that at all, Mari. All I care about is that we’re here now. That’s what I care about, the past can go fuck itself.”

She snorted, burying her face into his shoulder. He smelled nice. Something flowery, maybe rose, she wasn’t sure. They fit together like puzzle pieces. She never wanted to leave his side. 

She couldn’t believe it had taken them this long. Then again, she sort of could. Combined, the two of them could be sort of dense. 

“I’m so glad I have you.” Marinette breathed, not even sure if he could hear her. She still wasn’t sure, but he held onto her even tighter. Marinette thinks maybe he did hear. 

**Author's Note:**

> i keep getting REALLY obsessed with this show in like one year increments, and this is about my this cycle of loving it, ignoring it, loving it, ignoring it, and finally loving it again. i love these stupid adorable kids so much.
> 
> hmu on [twitter](https://twitter.com/cryptidmoth666) if u wanna chat !


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